I'm willing to bet a few thousand Kuna that no one reading this would ever consider that I might spend the night sleeping on the floor of a bar, but as Duncan and I waved a sad goodbye to the shimmering streets of Dubrovnik thats exaclty what I was going to do. Of course at that moment I didn't know that!

Like all good backpackers Duncan and I bought the cheapest tickets for our overnight ferry to Italy. Deck Tickets.

The weather was warm, the sky was cclear - we were happy to spend a night under the stars to same some Kuna, Euro.... whatver. WE boarded the ferry and followed our fellow travelers to the stern deck. Spreading out our towels and using our backpacks as pillows we set up camp for the night. As long as the annoying American next to us would stop talking we were in for a good night's rest - even is our bed was a little hard.

Midnight and open water saw us scrambling inside to find a slightly less 'breezy' place to sleep. Where did we end up? You guessed it, the floor of the ship bar. Technically we were still sleeping beneath the stars as the bar had no roof, but the 3 walls protected us from the gale force winds which had nearlz blown us off the stern of the ship. The floor of the bar was suprisingly comfortable and we both had a reasonable nights sleep!

This, our second trip to Italy saw us head north to Florence. What a beautiful city. Florence runs rings around itäs ugly step sister Rome. An enchanting city filled to the brim with amazing architecture, intrieging alleyäs and friendlz people - yet I have never felt as sad as I did in Florence.

As I stood in one of the many drool worthy shops which line the streets of Florence, caressing the beautiful soft leather of a 'must have' handbag, I had to blink back the tears. Why was God so mean? Was he punishing me for something? He'd bought me to this shopping mecca without the luggage space to enable me to shop. As I turned and left the store I thought to myself 'After this trip is over, As God is My Witness I will never travel withough space for shopping again!'

After Florence was Venice, which was 'nice'. Then Milan which was down right dissapointing. Buth then perhaps nothing in Italy can live up to the many delights of Florence.

Florence sits alongside Edinburgh on the very short list of city's that I could happily return to again and again.